As early voting for the primary election nears, several local races are heating up, including the sometimes overlooked position of county clerk.

Early voting for the March 4 primary begins Tuesday, and on the ballot are numerous state and local races, from governor to county judge to justices of the peace and everything in between.

Among them is the county clerk position, for which three Democrats and one Republican are vying. Incumbent Delia Briones faces her former chief deputy, Valerie Sanchez, and process server Rosa Cervantes in the Democratic primary. The winner will face the lone Republican candidate, Richard Gonzalez, in November.

REPORTER

Cindy Ramirez

The county clerk leads the department that serves as the official record keeper for the county, including county courts, real and personal property and personal records such as birth, death and marriage documents. The position is a four-year term with no term limits, and it pays nearly $87,000 a year.

The three women in the Democratic primary squared off in recent debates, when the two challengers launched allegations of employee intimidation and inefficiency against Briones.

That led to a flurry of online responses to an El Paso Times story on the debate from the candidates, who raised questions about each others' political motivations.

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Briones, who has served two terms, is campaigning on what she calls her office's journey to "modernize local government services through technology and innovation." Briones said the implementation of new technology has expedited services and is helping meet new state requirements that call for the redaction of private identifying information from public documents.

Briones, 58, wife of Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones, attended the University of Texas at El Paso but doesn't have a college degree. She said she's been involved in several local school and community groups, and has two adult children and five grandchildren.

"My eight years is this position is my masters because I've lived it, I know it and I most definitely have done the job well," Briones said. She said the migration to new software adopted by the county has had some challenges, but added that the kinks have been or are being worked out.

Sanchez had strong accusations against Briones, calling the county clerk's office bureaucratic, complacent and dysfunctional.

Sanchez, who was an "at will" employee and was fired by Briones after three years, said the implementation that Briones touts doesn't paint a complete picture. She says the county clerk's office has been slow to implement the technology, hasn't properly trained staff to use it, and has a long way to go in redacting private information from public records.

Briones dismisses those claims, saying her office is "moving forward by leaps and bounds."

In her online response to the Times' story, Briones said she questions Sanchez' motivations to run for office, asking if "her anger towards me so strong that she would exploit the citizens vote just to seek revenge?"

Paco Venegas stopped to talk with Alyssa Perez, candidate for Judge in the 243rd District Court Friday after his jury duty was cancelled in downtown El Paso. ( MARK LAMBIE—EL PASO TIMES )

Briones said that she couldn't talk specifically about Sanchez' employment record because personnel matters are not open to the public. But in her online response, Briones asked Sanchez whether "she would condone her own performance and behavior from her own staff."

Sanchez said she had received positive evaluations and even received the county's top employee recognition, the Star Award, and said she doesn't know why she was fired. Briones said she did not nominate Sanchez for that award.

Sanchez, 35, has a master's degree in business and said she recently quit her job as the director of development with the United Way to focus on her campaign. She's the daughter of former City of Socorro Mayor Irma Sanchez.

Cervantes, owner of LegalNet Process Servers, said her experience in dealing with the county clerk's office, attorneys, judges, the courts and the public gives her an edge over her challengers.

"I see the need for change, customer service is lacking and the employee-administration relationships need help," said the 56-year-old Cervantes, whose husband and campaign manager is a bailiff in the courts. "There's a lot of turnover, and when the morale goes down, efficiency and customer service suffer."

Cervantes, who has a bachelor's in business marketing, said she would sell her company if elected to do away with any perception of conflicts of interest. She said she and her husband would not have any interactions that would present conflicts of interest.

"Even if she didn't own the company, would the relationships still exist?" Briones asked in her response to the El Paso Times story.

Cervantes and Sanchez both question why some 80 county clerk office employees have been fired since 2007.

Briones said she has let go of employees who have "not met the high standards I have set for our office," adding that every personnel action must follow Civil Service rules and regulations and that the Civil Service Commission has upheld all but one disciplinary action.

Briones said that although the buck stopped with her, many of the disciplinary actions taken against employees also were vetted through Sanchez while she worked there, and were reviewed by Human Resources and the County Attorney's Office.

"When I first came into office, working here was a way of life for many employees and they weren't always held to high standards," Briones said, adding that employees were fired for everything from insubordination to gross misconduct to tampering with government documents. "I had to raise the bar and change how things were done. Some people didn't like that."

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